Birthdays Aren't All Fun, But They Are Always Memorable
by girly tomboy
Summary: Even Sougo had to admit that staying cooped inside a hospital room, all alone, wasn't exactly the ideal way of spending his birthday.


**Anime: Gintama**

**Pairing: Okita Sougo and Kagura**

**Rating: T (Explicit Language)**

**Disclaimer: All rights belong to the genius Sorachi Hideaki**

**A/N: Birthday fic for Okita Sougo**

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Birthdays Aren't All Fun, But They Are Always Memorable

X

Sougo had to admit that having to spend his birthday trapped in a bleary hospital room, incapacitated, and with no means of escape, was an absolute pain in the ass, even for someone like him, who spent the majority of his time, assigned duties included, napping and slacking off.

Don't get him wrong, he couldn't give a flying Gorilla fuck less about the whole birthday situation, seeing as he usually spent it sleeping and lazing about anyways. But still, it felt satisfying adding another reason to the already long list and venting as to why this was the most shit-filled day ever.

The night before, Sougo had been tasked with a seemingly innocuous assignment at first- patrol the borders of Edo and locate a crime syndicate group rumored to have illegally distributed drugs to the locals and civilians, their base most likely near a harbor. Precautions were to be made, and the only thing Sougo had to do was radio the Shinsengumi once finding the group. Of course, because nothing ever goes as planned in Gintama, his position had been compromised almost immediately via a mishap with his communicator. In the blink of an eye, dozens of burly, stink-riddled men had surrounded him, snarls and feral grins etched on their faces.

Normally, Sougo would have had no other choice but to fight them, which he gladly started to do, knowing he could have eliminated most, if not all, of the members of the group. However, what he hadn't expected, was an immediate pressure colliding with his head and the sound of someone grunting from above him. He hadn't registered what, or rather _who, _had miraculously managed to apparently fall from the sky and land directly on his skull, for he was too busy recoiling in pain at the sudden impact to notice. The pitch black, dark abyss of night that enveloped them all didn't exactly help the situation either.

Sougo glanced at the group of burly men in front of him, observing as they donned equally surprised expressions, signifying that they clearly hadn't expected a bundle of thing to suddenly topple onto their enemy. He then quickly turned his head to face the mystery person who had just fallen on him, indicated by the various grunts and murmurs emitting from the dark form.

Until he felt a numbing sensation in his arms and legs, and saw needles protruding from his limbs, that is. Immediately, he collapsed onto the ground, his vision fading, becoming blurred at the edges. Sougo no longer had control of his arms and legs, and the _katana _that he had previously unsheathed to fight against the group clattered uselessly to the ground.

In hindsight, practically exposing his back toward dozens of tall, muscular men in want of his blood wasn't exactly the best decision.

_'Well, fuck.'_

As Sougo's vision started to dim, he mulled over how utterly stupid the entire situation was, and would have gladly forced that Hijikata bastard to do it in his stead had he known this was going to happen. Disdain was evident on his features as he glared maliciously at the blurred silhouettes ahead of him, wishing that he had access to his bazooka.

The last thing he heard as the world faded to black was a disgruntled, yet familiar voice, although he couldn't pinpoint where, and the sound of bullets being shot, strands of vermilion locks getting in the way.

The next day, Sougo had woken up in a hospital room, started awake by the all too familiar disinfectant smell and wondering why the hell he wasn't dead yet. Wisps of what had transpired lingered in his mind, no doubt adding to the growing headache he felt as it pounded away. The only part that seemed to blur was when someone had practically bashed his skull in with their own. After that, things became quite hazy and so he had deemed the attempt to remember the events from last night futile and instead started to busy himself figuring a way out of the bleak room.

If only he could move.

When Sougo tried to lift up his arm, an electrifying shock crawled up his limb in the blink of an eye, burning and making him hiss in pain. He tried the same action with his other arm and legs, but to no avail. Not only was he paralyzed, but he had never before been exposed to such a strange poison, and so he had absolutely no idea how to counter it.

Although, because of the weird effects of the drug he had been injected with, he did remember parts of what had occurred last night, up until the point where he had been shot with the needles. He couldn't recall how he ended up in the hospital, however, and so hoped that his savior was at least a decent-ish person.

And so Sougo spent the majority of the morning asking nurses who had been assigned to his room, inquiring about the events that led up to his hospitalization, yet to no avail, seeing as the nurses themselves hadn't a clue as to who his savior was. Unfortunately, because of the foreign substance still in his system, Sougo was forced to stay cooped up in his room, an expression of perpetual boredom etched on his features as he awaited for an antidote, or for the actual drug to wear off, whichever came first.

Over the course of mere hours, Kondo and the Mayo bastard had visited, along with the remaining members of the First Division, debriefing him on the crime syndicate group and the mission itself. Although most of the members of the group who weren't found unconscious had been arrested, details were unclear as to how Sougo actually fended them off, nor how they were found half dead and battered in the first place. The poor Gorilla commander was sniffling in between, rubbing snot all over an unfortunate Hijikata, much to Sougo's amusement, his sobbing and wailing escalating.

"Sougo! Our poor baby! Are you hurt? Are you in agonizing pain? Don't worry! Mommy and I will stay with you all you want! Right, Mommy?" At this, the older man stared expectantly at Hijikata.

"Like hell my kid's going to be such a damn brat! And why the hell am _I _the mom?!"

After having to drag a snot-nosed Kondo out of the room, the Shinsengumi members bud him farewell and congratulated him on finally maturing one more year into the world of adulthood, leaving abruptly after under the guise of work. The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, Sougo still without an inkling as to how he had woken up in the hospital in the first place.

The flaxen haired Shinsengumi member was pulled out of his despondent mulling when grogginess started to creep up on him, beckoning him to the endless relief of slumber. Complying, Sougo felt his eyelids droop as he relaxed into the white sheets, fully ready to just end the day and rest for the night. He couldn't, however, deny the fleeting thought that something seemed quite off kilter; as if something was missing, something he couldn't put a finger on.

A light thud coming from the entrance of the room immediately snapped him out of his trance, and he hastily looked towards the doorway, where the doors had suddenly slid open. As baffled as he was that someone was visiting him after hours, he couldn't squash the hint of curiosity within him that made itself known. Quite possibly, this person was the one who had brought him here.

He watched with bated breath as the silhouette of the figure could be seen, before finally, their whole body approached and entered the room, revealing their identity.

Only for quite a familiar vermilion haired Yato, who went by the name of China, to appear.

Quite honestly, it was by far, the biggest disappointment Sougo had ever had.

_'Tch. And on my birthday too.'_

Although, he had to admit that he was quite baffled as to how she even knew he was admitted into the hospital. Just as the flaxen haired young man was about to ask her that, undoubtedly adding in a few choice insults of his own as well, her disheveled appearance finally seemed to register to him. In particular, her obscured eyes and heavy breathing.

Kagura's hair was ruffled and unkempt, for once flowing down to her shoulders, for once not braided into her usual twin buns. Although her bangs obscured her normally bright cerulean orbs, Sougo could tell they were downcast, indicated by the downward tilt of her head. Her mouth was open and she was gasping heavily, almost as if she had hauled ass here. The most peculiar feature he noticed, however, were the tiny scrapes and cuts dotting the exposed expanse of her naturally pale skin. A brief moment of silence passed before Sougo spoke up again.

"You look like shit, China."

He barely had time to register the clenched fist that slammed itself into the wall besides him, denting and cracking the plaster. He inwardly flinched, for he knew that China would have knocked his head clean off is she so desired, even more so due to the lingering drug in his system.

Sougo, who was too busy mulling over his close call, hadn't noticed that Kagura had, while punching the wall next to him, leaned forward and was within close proximity of the flaxen haired man. It wasn't until their breaths mingled and their noses were inches away that he finally noticed.

"Why are you so close? I know I'm breathtaking, but you need to behave yourself," he casually commented, an ever present deadpan facade hiding his anxiousness at her sudden actions.

"You are not hurt, are you?" The Yato girl blurted out, her eyes staring intently at him. Kagura's gaze was steely and hard, and Sougo couldn't help but notice the way her striking cerulean irises seemed to have taken on a luminescent glow to them, and how her pupils were slightly dilated, as if she was desperately in need of something. What he couldn't put a finger on, however, was the lingering wisp of another foreign emotion present in her large orbs, swirling within the depths and adding a softer tinge to her calculated expression. Sougo couldn't help but stay fixated on her features, staring back just as intently.

"Answer me."

"Oh? I didn't know you were that worried about me, China. Have you finally come to terms with your feelings?" Sougo relentlessly taunted, a haughty smirk evident on his smooth complexion. _'China is definitely acting strange.' _The Shinsengumi member was reluctant to answer her, for her behavior was very unbecoming of the usual brazen, blunt China girl he was used to.

Seeing as the conversation was going to become unnecessarily dragged out, Kagura slowly unclenched her fist and pulled away, reverting back to avoiding Sougo's gaze as she busied herself staring at the ground. Just as the aforementioned male was about to question her on it, a light pressure landed on his lap and he looked down, only to be met with a clear vile of a foreign, thick substance.

"I found the remnants of that crime group and beat them to a pulp. They gave me the antidote in return. There, that's for you," Kagura muttered, all the while not meeting his widened eyes and fidgeting nervously. Sougo, on the other hand, was quite astounded, almost immediately assuming China had somehow managed to sneak a bomb in and that was her excuse just before she blew him up to smithereens. Even for someone as controlled and disciplined as he was, the flaxen haired officer couldn't contain the incredulous expression he donned.

It wasn't everyday someone of Kagura's calibre came up to him, nervous _and _unsure, and offered to help him, no less. He observed her, no doubt ingraining the image of her in his mind.

Wait a second.

Wait a damn second.

"... How did you know where my room was? How did you know I was even poisoned? Don't tell me..."

"..."

"Gyaah! You're the damn bastard who fell on me last night, weren't you?! I could have fucking died! You were the one who took me here too, weren't you?!"

Again, Sougo was met with silence. After a while of waiting impatiently, the vermilion haired Yato in front of him abruptly clicked her tongue, further convincing him that she was the culprit who had almost cost him the mission.

"You damn bitch! You didn't deny it! It was you, wasn't it? No wonder it felt so damn heavy; it was your humongous gorilla brain!"

In an instant, Kagura donned her custom fierce look, a challenging glint in her eyes as she stared condescendingly at him. Although Sougo had to admit that it was a pain in the ass dealing with a hot-tempered Yato girl, especially China of all people, he preferred that over her strange behavior just a moment ago.

"Haah! I was the one who saved your sorry ass! If it wasn't for me happening to be on the roof right above you, you would have died anyways! You should be thanking me, damn Sadist! Who was it who went out of their own way to actually get the antidote after?!"

They kept arguing back and forth, haphazardly throwing careless insults at each other, their voices raising an octave higher as they continued. It wasn't until Kagura heard frantic footsteps coming to an abrupt rest before Sougo's room when she instantly shut her mouth mid-scream, a panicked expression on her pale features.

"Crap! Visiting hours are over!"

"Since when did you give a damn about rules, China?" the young man questioned indifferently, slightly regretting that she was probably going to leave. Not that he would ever admit it, however.

The girl in question only muttered a small _'Gin-chan' _and _'late' _before facing the window to his room, promptly ripping the glass out of its frame as she all but slammed it open. Hastily, she lifted a foot onto the ledge and was about to propel herself out when, on what seemed like an afterthought, she hopped off the ledge and marched over to where Sougo was resting, an unfamiliar emotion flitting across her face.

Sougo distinctly heard a small inhale coming from the petite girl, and before he realized what it was, he felt a small, light pressure on the side of his cheeks as Kagura's soft, pink lips contacted with his skin. When she pulled away, she snickered a little at his baffled look before lazily smiling, her cerulean eyes half-lidded and shining in amusement.

"Happy birthday, Sadist."

In the blink of an eye, the Yato girl was no where to be seen, the light zephyr wafting in from the opened window the only indication of where she had suddenly vanished to.

And as Sougo stared blankly ahead, he really did have to wonder what the hell just happened.

Although, as much as he yearned to, he couldn't for the life of him deny the intense pounding in his chest and the queasy flutters he felt in the recesses of his stomach as his mind kept dwelling on the sensation of her supple lips pressed against his cheek.

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**A/N: Sorry if the ending is rushed or OOC, but thank goodness I barely finished in time for Sougo's birthday fic.**


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